I came home last Wednesday, and have been adjusting to the "new normal" routines of daily life. It has been trying, to say the least. But with the help and loving support of family and friends, I am getting through this! I am feeling stronger everyday and with time will be ready to help Tom build a house!
Our dream continues with progress daily. I haven't been to the shore since our "Happy Hour" on the porch, but Tom went down this past weekend to check on construction and reports that things continue to move along. The electrician has begun working and the HVAC guy is doing his thing, as well as the plumber. Hopefully I will be able to ride down there in a couple of weeks.
In the mean time, I will be at home and welcome calls and visits. As always, thank you for your prayers and thoughtful good wishes.
Til next. :-) Bets
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Maybe its the drugs
While visiting with Betsy today she told me about a dream that she had about a store called "Things are not what they appear" hereafter, referred to as "Things" .
"Things" is a store in the village (sounds like The Prisoner to me) that caters to the hoity toity-- it sells furniture that the villagers all think that is just the best.
One day Betsy was drawn to "Things" by the crowd coming and going from the place. As she approached "Things" Betsy was struck by the perfect little girls in their perfect little frocks who were making their perfect little dogs (Yorkshire terriers) do tricks in front of the store. Oh my, how this delighted the crowd!!
Betsy purchased a few pieces of furniture from "Things": a sofa and an armed dining room chair. The pieces were exquisite. Or so it seemed; the arms on the chaired separated from the frame every time the chair as moved and the sofa cushions were as hard as rocks.
This pissed Betsy off to no end and she returned to "Things" to give them a piece of her mind.
Once again as she neared the place, Betsy was struck by the crowd. Everyone was oohing and aahing about the merchandise (and I suppose the puppies.)
Well, Betsy wasn't going to have any of that. She told everyone about the crappy furniture. She said they needed to open up eyes. They needed get real and to see things for what they were, not what they appeared to be.
There's a lot more to the story and as I listened to it I thought it could be a cool short story. I know a couple of writers monitor this blog (Greg, I think this is more you than Mary Jo) the first one to invite Betsy to dinner gets the story.
"Things" is a store in the village (sounds like The Prisoner to me) that caters to the hoity toity-- it sells furniture that the villagers all think that is just the best.
One day Betsy was drawn to "Things" by the crowd coming and going from the place. As she approached "Things" Betsy was struck by the perfect little girls in their perfect little frocks who were making their perfect little dogs (Yorkshire terriers) do tricks in front of the store. Oh my, how this delighted the crowd!!
Betsy purchased a few pieces of furniture from "Things": a sofa and an armed dining room chair. The pieces were exquisite. Or so it seemed; the arms on the chaired separated from the frame every time the chair as moved and the sofa cushions were as hard as rocks.
This pissed Betsy off to no end and she returned to "Things" to give them a piece of her mind.
Once again as she neared the place, Betsy was struck by the crowd. Everyone was oohing and aahing about the merchandise (and I suppose the puppies.)
Well, Betsy wasn't going to have any of that. She told everyone about the crappy furniture. She said they needed to open up eyes. They needed get real and to see things for what they were, not what they appeared to be.
There's a lot more to the story and as I listened to it I thought it could be a cool short story. I know a couple of writers monitor this blog (Greg, I think this is more you than Mary Jo) the first one to invite Betsy to dinner gets the story.
Detubified
"Detubified" is a highly technical medical term . So technical in fact, that if you Google it you won't find but one reference and that doesn't explain it. Be that as it may as of this morning Betsy is fully detubified. Her NG tube was removed which means that she can begin to take in some real food and her "pain purse" has also gone by the way side. Bets really didn't like using the pain meds as they made her hallucinate, plus her pain level was generally down around a 1 or 2 on a 10 scale anyway.
Being detubified makes it real easy for her to do laps around the unit. She's been up walking a lot over the past several days, but now without the IV pole she can really move out. We suspect that discharge is only days away and that will depend mostly on how well she tolerates food.
I want to go back and revisit something I said in previous post . When Dr. Sardi assessed Betsy's condition during surgery he removed all of the tumors that he could, but that wasn't all of the tumors. There was no benefit to doing the chemo part so so he didn't. The Heated Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy is most effective when the tumors are small, Betsy's didn't meet the definition of "small"--whatever that is.
Once the pathology is done on the tumors, Betsy's medical oconologist will determine what course of chemo will follow.
None of us is giving up. Betsy
Being detubified makes it real easy for her to do laps around the unit. She's been up walking a lot over the past several days, but now without the IV pole she can really move out. We suspect that discharge is only days away and that will depend mostly on how well she tolerates food.
I want to go back and revisit something I said in previous post . When Dr. Sardi assessed Betsy's condition during surgery he removed all of the tumors that he could, but that wasn't all of the tumors. There was no benefit to doing the chemo part so so he didn't. The Heated Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy is most effective when the tumors are small, Betsy's didn't meet the definition of "small"--whatever that is.
Once the pathology is done on the tumors, Betsy's medical oconologist will determine what course of chemo will follow.
None of us is giving up. Betsy
Friday, April 16, 2010
What's up with the picture?
The new picture is Betsy enjoying happy hour on the back porch of a Shore Thing last weekend. Our project manager Ed, his wife and "the amigos" building the home orchestrated cleaning up the place and putting the pieces in place so Betsy could enjoy the moment, indelibly etch it in her mind and focus on it for the future.
See more happy hour pictures here.
See more happy hour pictures here.
Cancer Sucks
Dear friends
Betsy's recovery from the surgery goes well. She was moved back to a regular room late yesterday afternoon and I've been with her since then. That's given us a lot of time to sort through things.
Despite a very aggressive treatment of multiple surgeries and intensive chemotherapy, Betsy's cancer just won't die.
The surgery this past Tuesday was suppose to be another HIPEC procedure which would have included Heated Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy. When Dr. Sardi assessed Betsy's condition during surgery he removed all of the tumors that he could, but that wasn't all of the tumors. There was no benefit to doing the chemo part so so he didn't.
Right now the focus is on recovery. Betsy will start PT today which will have her walking at least one lap around the unit. Some semi solid food will be introduced into her diet and the "de-tubing" process will start as well.
We, like you, want to know what's going to happen next.....
Please keep Betsy in your thoughts and prayers and if you can spare an extra one for me and the boys that would be greatly appreciated.
Tom
Betsy's recovery from the surgery goes well. She was moved back to a regular room late yesterday afternoon and I've been with her since then. That's given us a lot of time to sort through things.
Despite a very aggressive treatment of multiple surgeries and intensive chemotherapy, Betsy's cancer just won't die.
The surgery this past Tuesday was suppose to be another HIPEC procedure which would have included Heated Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy. When Dr. Sardi assessed Betsy's condition during surgery he removed all of the tumors that he could, but that wasn't all of the tumors. There was no benefit to doing the chemo part so so he didn't.
Right now the focus is on recovery. Betsy will start PT today which will have her walking at least one lap around the unit. Some semi solid food will be introduced into her diet and the "de-tubing" process will start as well.
We, like you, want to know what's going to happen next.....
Please keep Betsy in your thoughts and prayers and if you can spare an extra one for me and the boys that would be greatly appreciated.
Tom
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
On the road to recovery
Betsy's stay in ICU is approaching an end -- tomorrow morning she'll move back to the oconology unit. She's still a little groggy but says she feels fine. The staff has had her out of bed a couple of times and from all reports Betsy welcomed the opportunities. Aside from me she had a couple of other visitors today; her mom and her sister, Margaret. I think they will both back me up when I say that Betsy looks great.
If you find yourself in the neighborhood please don't hesitate to stop by a visit for a while.
Well that's pretty much it for today. Please keep Bets in your thoughts and prayers.
Tom
Hey Angelo--it was great to see you today. Thanks for the support!
If you find yourself in the neighborhood please don't hesitate to stop by a visit for a while.
Well that's pretty much it for today. Please keep Bets in your thoughts and prayers.
Tom
Hey Angelo--it was great to see you today. Thanks for the support!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Where do we go from here.
Dear friends,
As I write this I'm sitting with Betsy in Mercy Hospital's ICU. There was some discussion that maybe she could do her initial recovery in an intermediate care unit, but ICU won out. This is not unexpected and is consistent with the last time Bets went through this. Bets is totally zonked out but looks very comfortable.
So what happened today. Betsy's surgery started at just about 8 o'clock this morning and ended about 5 o'clock this afternoon. Not nearly the 16 hour ordeal from the last time but still an awfully long time to be on an operating table.
The focus this time was the cancer in Betsy's bowel and the surgery showed that while the cancer was localized to the bowel it had created an almost total obstruction in one area. Dr. Sardi removed a significant amount 0f tumor, but to do so he had to remove a significant amount of bowel. We knew going into this that a colostomy may be one of the outcomes.
So where do we go from here. Well from here, the ICU, in a day or so Betsy will go back to the regular oncology unit to fully recover. During that time we'll have any number of conversations with her team to discuss Betsy's future.
"The future", those are sweet words. Please keep Betsy in your thoughts and prayers and stay tuned. As we learn more we'll share it.
Tom
As I write this I'm sitting with Betsy in Mercy Hospital's ICU. There was some discussion that maybe she could do her initial recovery in an intermediate care unit, but ICU won out. This is not unexpected and is consistent with the last time Bets went through this. Bets is totally zonked out but looks very comfortable.
So what happened today. Betsy's surgery started at just about 8 o'clock this morning and ended about 5 o'clock this afternoon. Not nearly the 16 hour ordeal from the last time but still an awfully long time to be on an operating table.
The focus this time was the cancer in Betsy's bowel and the surgery showed that while the cancer was localized to the bowel it had created an almost total obstruction in one area. Dr. Sardi removed a significant amount 0f tumor, but to do so he had to remove a significant amount of bowel. We knew going into this that a colostomy may be one of the outcomes.
So where do we go from here. Well from here, the ICU, in a day or so Betsy will go back to the regular oncology unit to fully recover. During that time we'll have any number of conversations with her team to discuss Betsy's future.
"The future", those are sweet words. Please keep Betsy in your thoughts and prayers and stay tuned. As we learn more we'll share it.
Tom
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
